Supports for acoustic tile



April 2, 1968 P. D. DAIL SUPPORTS FOR ACOUSTIC TILE Original Filed July 24, 1961 BY iw u r ATTORNEYS United States Patent Ofilice 3,375,639 Patented Apr. 2}, 1968 3,375,630 SUPPORTS FOR ACOUSTIC TILE Paul D. Dail, San Diego, Calif., assignor to Hackett Ceiling Dynamics, San Diego, Calif.

Original application May 24, 1965, Ser. No. 465,233, now Patent No. 3,339,331, dated Sept. 5, 1967, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 126,298, July 24, 1961. Divided and this application Aug. 9, 1967, Ser. No. 659,423

2 Claims. (Cl. 52-475) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A ceiling construction comprising a plurality of elongated channel-like runners, each having a planar underside, and each having shoulders on opposite sides for supporting rabbeted sound absorbing tile, the lower surfaces of the tile lying in the same plane as the underside of the runners. Each runner is provided with shoulders for supporting the same.

The present application is a division of my copending application Ser. No. 465,233, filed May 24, 1965, now Patent Number 3,339,331, which is a continuation of my applicaion Ser. No. 126,298, filed July 24, 1961, now abandoned.

The present invention relates to sound absorbing type ceiling construction for buildings and more particularly to ceilings constructed of sound absorbing tile.

Usually, a ceiling of the above type is supported by a plurality of parallelly arranged runners which runners are supported from the roof or other ceiling structure thereabove. In practicing the present invention, the underside of the runners are planar and lie in the same horizontal plane. Each of these runners is provided with ledges which extend inwardly from the opposite elongated marginal edges and above the aforementioned planar surface thereof. Sound absorbing tiles are supported by the ledges of adjacent parallel runners, The opposite edges of each of these tiles are rabbeted to form downwardly facing shoulders which rest on the ledges of adjacent runners. These shoulders are disposed at a distance from the bottom of the tile equal to the distance between the planar underside surface of the runner and the top of the ledge.

The runner includes an integral structure formed, for example of metal.

The advantages will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing wherein a preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary view, partly in section, showing one form of the improved ceiling construction; and

FIGS. 2 and 3 are fragmentary sectional views taken along line 22 and line 33, respectively, of FIG. 1.

Referring more in detail to the drawing, the side wall of a room is shown at and the ceiling is shown generally at 22. This ceiling comprises a plurality of runners and sound absorbing tile 24. Usually a runner is attached to each side wall and such runner is shown at 26, which may be held in place by nails or screws 28 which extend through a vertical portion 30 of the runner; these runners 26 are each provided with a planar bottom 31 which lie in a horizontal plane. A plurality of intermediate and parallelly arranged runners are arranged intermediate the end runners 26; one of these intermediate runners is shown at 32. Each of these intermediate runners 32 is provided with a planar bottom. 34 and all planar undersides of the runners 26 and 32 lie in the same horizontal plane. Each of these runners 32 is provided with longitudinally extending ledges 40 and 42 which extend inwardly from the opposite elongated marginal upper edges of the side walls 36 and 38 and thereby provide shoulders. Like shoulders are formed by the side runners 26, one of which is shown at 39. These runners are formed, pre-ferably, of sheet metal.

The tiles 24 are formed of sound absorbing material and are supported by the ledges or shoulders 40 and 42. The opposite edges of each of these tiles are rabbeted as shown at 44 to form downwardly facing shoulders 46 and 48, and these shoulders rest upon the ledges 39 and 40 and on 40 and 42 of the runners. The rabbeting is such that the shoulders 46 and 48 are disposed at a distance from the bottom of the tile equal to the distance between the planar underside surfaces of the runners and the tops of the ledges whereby the underside 50 of the tiles 24 lie in the same horizontal plane as the undersides of bottom 31 and 34 of the runners. Preferably, these runners are formed of metal.

Each of the runners 32 includes upright side walls 52 and 54 which extend longitudinally throughout the length of the runner and are joined with the inner edges of the ledges 40 and 42, respectively. These side walls 52 and 54 then extend inwardly and downwardly as at 56 and 58 to form downwardly facing shoulders 60. These shoulders 60 rest upon the upwardly facing shoulders 62 which are formed on integrally formed wings 64 of a bracket 66. These brackets are provided with integrally formed hooks 68 at the upper end thereof, which are hooked over channel irons 70. These channel irons extend transversely of the runners and are carried by the roof or ceiling of the building by wires 72.

Inasmuch as the undersides 50 of the tiles and the underside of the runners 34 are in the same horizontal plane, the building can be readily partitioned into various rooms or closets, since the upper edge 74 of the partition wall 76 can be readily placed in position and the entire edge thereof can lie flush with the undersides of the tile and runner. Straight molding such as that shown at 78 can also be readily applied. In this manner the edge 74 of the side wall 76 may be cut in a straight line and still be in fitting relationship with both the underside of the tiles and the runners.

The tiles 24 areusually square and the opposite ends, which lie at right angles to the rabbeted ends, are each provided with a kerf in the form of a narrow slot extending from one rabbeted end to the other; such slots are shown at 82. The adjacent slots receive the oppositely extending arms 84 of a support 86 which is T-shaped in cross section. As is more clearly shown in FIG. 3, the opposite ends of the support 86 rest upon ledges 39 and 40 or 40 and 42 of the runners 31 and 32, respectively.

While the form of embodiment herein shown and described constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms may be adopted falling within the scope of the claims that follow.

I claim:

1. A ceiling construction comprising in combination:

(A) a plurality of elongated parallelly arranged channellike runners, each having:

(1) a coextensive bottom. forming a planar surface on the underside thereof;

(2) coextensive shoulders extending inwardly from opposite elongated marginal edges of the runner and above the planar surface;

(3) upright walls extending upwardly from the inner marginal edges of the shoulders;

(4) parallelly disposed, inwardly extending and downwardly facing shoulders;

3 4 (B) means engaging the second mentioned shoulders (D) supports which are inverted T-shaped in cross secfor supporting the runner; tion, the opposite arms of each support extending (C) and sound absorbing tile, each having: into the kerfs of confronting tile, the ends of the (1) a planar underside; supports resting on the shoulders of adjacent runners. (2) opposite edges thereof being rabbeted to pro- 5 vide downwardly facing shoulders, said last menf r n s Clt d tioneg ihOliiddfifs frestii ng utpon the ttikrlstdmen- UNITED STATES PATENTS rone s on ers o a acen runners, e ownwardly facing shoulders formed by the rabbet 2447694 8/1948 Fmch 52-285 beino dis 2,667,667 2/1954 Jacobson 52-490 X D posed at a distance from the planar '1 10 2,742,122 4/1956 Stanley 287-189.36 bottom of tne tiles equal to the distance betwe n the planar underside surface of the rua- 2963751 12/1960 Mancini 52-484 V 3 049 341 8/1962 Kemp 52484 X ner and the top of the first mentloned shoulders, 3O53fi59 9/1962 St 52 484 whereby the planar underside surfaces of the A an ey runners and tile are in the same plane; 15 FOREIGN PATENTS (3) the side edges of the tile above the rabbet ex- 544 293 7/1957 Canada tendlng to ad acent the upright walls of ad acent 821,513 10/1959 Great Britain. runners- 299,639 9/1954 Switzerland.

2. A ceiling construction as defined in claim 1, characterized in that the tiles are rectangular in shape and that 20 FRANK L. ABBOTT Primary Examinen the edges of each tile which are disposed at right angles to the rabbeted edges are provided with kerfs; and further ALFRED PERHAM Exammer' characterized to include: 

